Paul Johnson pleased with freshman progress

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets coach Paul Johnson spoke to the media on Tuesday at his weekly press conference, and one thing he focused on was how his redshirt freshmen were coming along. Needless to say, Johnson was pretty pleased with most of their progress.

Johnson highlighted a bunch of names, including highly recruited defensive end Francis Kallon (via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution):

"Pat Gamble has had a really good year. He's been on the scout team. I think he's going to be really good. He's probably about 265, 270 now, 6-5. Francis Kallon has played on the scout team all year, plays with great effort. He's probably the rawest of the bunch. Spring's going to be big for him. Rod Chungong's going to be a good player. He's put on about 25 pounds. Those are the three defensive linemen up front.

Kallon was a 4-star coming out of high school according to both Scout and Rivals. On Scout, he was ranked as the 19th best defensive end in the country.

On the offensive side of the ball, Johnson spoke a bit about quarterback Justin Thomas:

"(Quarterback) Justin (Thomas) is playing on scout team some and he comes and plays with the varsity some. We try to keep him up there at least one day a week and let him run with the varsity so that come spring he's going to be ready to compete. (Lineman) Chase Roberts is over there on the scout team, (lineman) Freddie Burden, (A-back) Dennis Andrews. There's a pretty good nucleus of guys that we're redshirting that we feel good about."

Thomas, like Kallon, was a 4-star coming out of high school according to both Scout and Rivals. Thomas is a plus athlete with a lot of speed who was initially projected as a wide receiver at the college level. But in Georgia Tech's triple option offense, he is well suited for the quarterback position.